Device for registering sheets on platens



May 14, 1929. c. F. ROOT wvicm FOR nmxs'mnme SHEETS on PLATENS Filed Oct. 17, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet I N VEN TOR.

Wm a um 4w May 14, 1929. c. F. ROOT DEVICE FOR REGISTERING SHEETS ON PLATENS Filed Oct. 17, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet mwoww m V0 m m7 6 Z I M 4. z U W Patented May 14, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES IE. ROOT, F CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE CHANDTIER AND PRICE COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, QHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

DEVICE FOR REGISTERING SHEETS ON PLATENS.

A ucanbn filed mm 17, 1927. Serial No. 226,603.

.that it may properly register with the form.

Various devices, more or less automatic in character, have heretofore been provided for effecting such register, but these have been more or less complicated, being arranged to impart independent movement to the sheet in two different directions.

The object of the present invention is to provide a registering device that by a single movement will serve to bring the sheet into desired position with respect to both the end stops and the side stop. A further ob ect is to provide a device of simple construction that will not be liable to get out of order and that may be readily adjusted as well as as sembled and disassembled.

While the invention has been referred to as particularly designed for use in connection with a Gordon press, it will be understood that its use is not limited to any such particular type of press. L

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the annexed drawings and the following dGSCIlP: tion setting forth in detail certain mechanism embodying the invention, such disclosed means constituting, however, but one of various mechanical forms in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawings i Fig. 1 is a broken plan view of a platen of a printing press equipped with my present improved sheet registering device; Fig. 1 is a similar, butmore limited, view showing a slightly different construction; Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the device shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the same; Fig. 4 is a part vertical section andpart elevation of one portion of the device, the plane of such section being indicated by the line 41-4c, Fig. 2; and Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are views corresponding with Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively, but showing a modified construction.

In the case of each of the foregoing constructional forms of the device, the latter is shown as. applied to the platen 1 of a typical Gordon press. It has been deemed unnecessary to illustrate the manner in which such platen is supported for the oscillatory movement which requires to be imparted thereto in order to bring a sheet thereon into contact with the form (not shown). It has similarly been deemed unnecessary to illustrate the means whereby the gripper bar 2, that is pivotally attached at its respective ends to the loweredge of the platen, is actuated, but it will i be understood that incidentally to oscillation of the platen, said bar is likewise oscillated so as to swing the gripper fingers 3 carried thereby downwardly against the face of the platen, their function being to retain the sheet in place during the printing operation. To accommodate said fingers to sheets of various size, they are preferably adjustably mounted on the bar, being secured in desired location by means of a clamp nut 4. The usual two end stops and side stop 6 are diagrammatically shown in Fig. 1. and corresponding plan views 5 and 9, it being understood that these stops will be variously located, depending upon the size of the sheet and other conditions.

Referring now more particularly to the form of the device shown in Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, such device will be seen to comprise as its principal element an arm 10 thatis provided at its outer or free end with resilient sheet-receiving and gripping fingers of familiar construction. As illustrated there are three such fingers resembling the tines of a fork, the central finger 11 being arranged to extend in close fitting contact with the surface of the platen or rather of the tympan secured thereon, so that a sheet delivered onto the latter mayride over said finger and rest on the upper surface thereof. The two other fingers 12 are curved downwardly and then upwardly so as to be adapted to contact with the, upper surface of such sheet with sufiicient pressure to cause the sheet to follow the movement of arm 10 until its edges are brought into abutment with stops 5 and 6, as hereinafter described, whereupon the fingers will slide freely off of the sheet.

Arm 10 at its opposite or lower end is longitudinally slotted so as to adapt it to be adjustably secured, by means of a screw 13, in a seat 14 formed in the upper face of a supporting member 15. The latter includes a cylindrical stud 16 rotatably mounted in a suitable bearing therefor provided 'in a rocker 17 that is mounted to oscillate about a horizontal axis, i. e., one lying parallel with the lower edge of the platen, provided by-a pin18 offset with respect to said rocker and journaled in a suitable bearing in a bracket arm 19: The latter is slidably adjustably secured in the same slot 20 as are the gripper fingers'S and will be rocked in unison with said fingers. The end of the pin 18 projects beyond the bracket and has mount-ed thereon an angular arm 21, the free end of which is adapted to engage the upper surface of the platen adjacent its lower edge,

. being normally held'in' contact with such 15 platen surface by-means of a coil spring 22 that is connected at one end withthe arm and at the other end with the bracket.

The base 15- that carries the sheet engaging arm 10 of the device also includes a laterally projecting arm 23 provided with a downwardly directed pin 24 that is adapted to engage in a slot 25 formed in the head of apin26 that is in'turn rotatably held in the upper end of the bracket 19. of the swiveled connection between the bracket and the base 15 provided by the pins 24 and 26, interconnected in the manner just described, the efiect of oscillation of bar 2 will be at the same time to oscillate said base with arm 10 of the registering device,

despite the fact' that the latter lies'in an angularly related plane, being maintained in a plane parallel with the platen'by the action position, in which the device receives the lower edge of the sheet when the latter is delivered to the platen, and upon the bar 2 being'oscillated to swing the gripper fingers against the platen, the device will be simultaneously swung in a clockwise direction to the position shown in dotted outline in said figure. The construction is such as to impart a sufficient angular movement to arm 10 to carry the sheet gripping fingers 11 and 12 through an arcuate path nntil'they lie entirely below the line connecting end stops 5. As a result, the sheet of paper will be necessarily drawn downwardly until it contacts withsuch stops and at the same time it will be shifted laterally an amount suffi- 'cient to bring the right-hand edge thereof incontact with the side stop 6. In other words, the sheet is brought into register with boththe end stops and the side stop by a single movement of the arm 10.

Instead of having a separate arm 21 that rests on the platen, a longer supporting As a result a matter 0 member 15" may be substituted for member 15, as shown in Fig. 1, so that such member will thus slidably contact with the platen. Coil spring 22 corresponding with spring 22 will then be attached at one end to the pin 18 as before and at its outer end to bracket 19, with the result that member 15 is at all times maintained thus in contact, i. e., in close parallel relation, with the platen.

The registering device may be readily adjusted longitudinally of bar 2 by simple loosening the nut 4 that secures the bracket 19 to said bar. All parts of the device, it will be observed, are carried by said bracket, thus rendering the device entirely self-contained. At the same time the parts may be readily disassembled or assembled as occasion may require.

In the modified construction shown in Figs. 5 to 8, inclusive, the arm 10 of the registered device is adjustably secured, as before, to a base 15, that is mounted in the same fashion as previously described on bracket 19. However, the stud 16 on base 15, whereby the latter is journaled in rocker 17, is provided with an extension 16 that projects downwardly below the rocker and a coil spring 30 that surrounds said exten sion and is secured at one end thereto, and at the other to the lower face of the rocker, tends normally to rotate such stud, and thus the base and arm 10 carried thereby, in a clockwise direction.

The base 15 includes, as before. a lateral projection 23 provided with a downwardly directed pin 24, but this pin, instead of being received in the slotted head of a pin mounted in the upper end of the bracket, simply bears against a stud 31. fixed to said bracket, contact between the pin and stud being at all times insured by the action of the aforesaid spring 30. The operation of this form of the device is identical with that of the first form, the only difference in construction being the different location of the spring that efi'ects the normal positioning of parts. The action of the spring, it will be observed, is resisted by the angular arm 21 resting on the lower edge of the platen, such arm being here fixedly secured to pin 18.

It will be noted that in each of the several forms of my improved re 'stering device herein illustrated and descri ed, the device constitutes a self-contained unit ca able of attachment and removal from the p aten or rather the ripper bar, as an entirety. As

fact, the device has only slidable contact with the platen pro r and does not interfere with the raising o the tympan bail in order to make read but can simply be turned up and out of t e way about the pivotal axis of the rocker 17.

The construction of the device at the same time is exceedingly simple and the operation positive and effective for the purpose intended.

Utbcr' modes of applying the principle of my invention may be employed instead of the one explained, change being made as regards the mechanism herein disclosed, provided the means stated by any of the following claims or the equivalent of such stated means be employed.

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

1. The combination with a platen having an end stop and a side stop thereon, of a i gripper bar oscillatorily mounted on the lower edge of said platen, a bracket arm adapted to be secured to said bar in selected position therealong, a rocker pivoted to said arm about an axis parallel with the axis of oscillation of said bar, a supporting member pivoted to said rocker about an axis at right angles to the axis of the latter, means adapted to maintain said member in parallelism with said platen, said member having a separate swiveled connection with said bracket for permitting swinging movement thereon, and a sheet receiving and carrying device attached to said member.

2. The combination with a platen having an end stop and a side stop thereon, of a gripper bar oscillatorily mounted on the lower edge oit said platen, a bracket arm adapted to be secured to said bar in selected position therealong, a rocker pivoted to said arm about an axis parallel with the axis of oscillation of said bar, a supporting member pivoted to said rocker about an axis at right angles to the axis of the latter, means adapted to maintain said member in parallelism with said platen, said member having a separate swiveled connection with said bracket for permitting swinging movement thereon, and a sheet receiving and carrying device transversely adjustably attached to said member.

3. The combination with a plate having an end stop and a side stop thereon, of a gripper bar oscillatorily mounted on the lower edge of said platen, a bracket arm adapted to be secured to said bar in selected position therealong, a rocker pivoted to said arm about an axis parallel with the axis of oscillation of said bar, a supporting member pivoted to said rocker about an axis at right angles to the axis of the latter, resilient means adapted to maintain said member in. parallelism with said platen, said member having a separate swiveled connection with said bracket for permitting swinging movement thereon, and a sheet receiving and carrying device attached to said member. 7

4:. The combination with a platen having an end stop and a side stop thereon, of a gripper bar oscillatorily mounted on the lower edge of said platen, a bracket arm adapted to be secured to said bar in selected position therealong, a rocker pivoted to said arm about an axis parallel with the axis of oscillation of said bar, a supporting member pivoted to said rocker about an axis at right angles to the axis of the latter, said member being adapted slidably to contact with the platen, a spring interposed between said arm and rocker tending to retain said member thus in contact with said platen, said member having separate swiveled connection with said bracket for permitting swinging movement thereon, and a sheet receiving and carrying device attached to said member.

5. The combination with a platen having an end stop and a side stop thereon, of a gripper bar oscillator'ily mounted on the lower edge of said platen, a bracket arm adapted to be secured to said bar in selected position therealong, a rocker pivoted to said arm about an axis parallel with the axis of oscillation of said bar, a supporting member pivoted to said rocker about an axis at right angles to the axis of the latter, means adapted to maintain said rocker in parallelism with said platen, a slotted projection on said bracket, a corresponding projection on said member provided with a pin adapted to engage the slot in such other projection, and a sheet receiving and carrymg device attached to said member.

S7igned my me this 12th day of October, 192 I CHARLES F. ROOT. 

